Farmers Marrakech

Casablanca-born former banker Aziz Nahas is slowly transforming the Marrakech food scene with his farm-to-table cuisine. Nahas lives on the outskirts of the burgeoning African metropolis, where he turned a barren tract of land into a 25-acre permaculture farm called Sanctuary Slimane. Then, about three years ago, he purchased an elegant Art Deco shopping arcade in Marrakech’s Gueliz neighborhood, and teamed up with French restaurateur Benjamin Pastor to launch Blue Ribbon bakery and cafe in 2023 inside the arcade they renamed Galerie El Beqal (Arabic for “the grocer”). In September, they added the 44-seat Farmers restaurant, helmed by self-trained Moroccan chef Driss Aloui, who sources the organic produce for his nature-to-table cross-cultural dishes—think Moroccan lamb tacos and sea bream in harissa salsa—entirely from Slimane, which also supplies the adjacent farm shop. Wood and metal motifs honor the Deco heritage in the refined dining room of walnut tables, locally made ceramic tiles, and artist Sarah Edward’s irreverent paintings of Slimane’s resident hares. The farm’s fruits and flowers appear on nearly every stoneware plate, from fried squash blossoms to the hibiscus-poached pear and geranium ice cream, as well as in plant-infused cocktails like the Midnight Corbusier (made with date-distilled Moroccan mahia and ras el hanout, citrus, and fig). Rounding out Nahas’ modern commons are a just-opened wine bar and Morocco-centric Booklore, a realization of his dream to connect local youth with the country’s rich multicultural heritage.